The Points of Interest Mega File

The POI Mega File is a free map template containing hundreds of pushpin collections for truckers, RVers and other travelers.

Last updated: AUGUST 2013 (for the S&T 2013 release)

contains 220+ pushpin collections in a single Streets & Trips file

put together by the S&T team but credits go to DiscoveryOwners, SteveJonesMO, SpadesFlush (Phil), iRV2DriVer, Tiff Miller, Tom Bernardi, Bill Halberstadt, Richard in NC and many other who willingly contribute to this huge collection.

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72 Responses to The Points of Interest Mega File

I just updated to the October version. It is a much better and neater package. BUT I am so dissapointed that Flying J and Pilot have been lumped into one! Although the are now owned by the same company, they are still separate and totally different truck stops. I plan each and every trip around Flying J truck stopsand avoid Pilot like the plague. Petro now ownes TA truckstops and the fuel cards are combined into one, yet they are still separate in this file.
Is there an older version I can change to so I can again separate the two?

Thanks for your feedback. My source for this POI collection has it combined. I’ll see how much work it would be to separate the data for Nov. BTW – what is wrong with Pilot and what makes Flying J superior?

Pilot forces you into the truck lanes and they are normally covered with grease and fuel. There is a reason the truck drivers wear old boots and gloves to fill up. Flying J has RV lanes at most locations and they are normally clean.

I totally concur with Dennis Miller. I have a 35′ RV with a gasoline engine and tow a car. Pilot stations do not have gasoline in the truck islands, this forces me into the passenger car fuel islands which are a problem for me and the tow-car. I also avoid Pilot stations, and plan ahead to fuel up at Flying J stations — they are the best for my rig. Your efforts are very much appreciated!

Flying J has facilities for driver convenience. Some still have “real” restaurants. ALL have decent parking. Most have laundry facilities. They have places you can sit and wait for showers. Most Pilots force you to stand around the store to wait (and wait time is immensely shorter @ Flying J). Pilot just wants your fuel and junk money and for you to go down the road. Pilot is simply in the business to collect $$. At leas, so far, Flying J considers who is actually buttering their bread. Been involved in trucking for over 30 years. I actually remember when “truck stops” were not geared toward tourists!

Todd, if you are referring to the set named “Pilot/Flying J RV Friendly”, then I am the one who assembles that set. Note that it says “RV Friendly”. By that, I mean that it includes only those locations that have at least one of: Propane, RV Island, or Dump Station. That rules out almost all of the former Pilot locations (and some of the Flying J). After Pilot acquired Flying J, they renamed some of the former Flying J locations to Pilot, and vice-versa. That meant that to maintain the intent of the set, I had to start including some Pilot locations. From your comments, I believe this set is actually what you want.
Safe travels.
Bill Halberstadt

1. After you have a route created on the map, ‘show’ the categories you are interested in. They will show up all over the map.
2. Click on the ‘find nearby places’ toolbar button.
3. At the bottom of the Find nearby places pane you’ll see the search radius. Change it to 1 mile.
4. Change the “Around” to “Entire route”
5. Click Refresh and wait
(depending on the length of your route it can take a few moments.

The pushpin icons are still all over the map but the ones listed in the find nearby places to be the ones that are located within 1 mile of the calculated route.

I purchased S&T at the Good Sam Rally in Redmond, OR. I can’t open S&T. I get an error message that says Your registry settings for this application were not copied correctly. Run Setup again from the same place it was originally installed. An S&T person at the Rally said it would work if I ran it as an administrator. How do I do this, I haven’t had any luck.

I’m running Windows Vista. When I right click on the icon and hit properties, there is no compatibility tab. I can’t find any thing that will allow me to run as administrator. It’s the same if I right click on the item in the start menu.

Hi Richard,
S&T will install and likely run OK on your netbook. The lack of height on the screen resolution may cause some clipping of some of the buttons at the bottom. Install the free 60-day trial and see how it looks.

Just downloaded and looked through your giant POI file. Wow is all I can say!

I did find one poi you will want to remove. Cabela’s will NOT be building a new store in Denver. That poi needs to be pulled so no one actually goes looking for a Cabela’s here. The closest one remains in Sidney, NE.

Howdy from a full-timer,
Love S&T! Thanks for the POI work.
I need help with what I think is a small problem. We downloaded the Mega file but it does not automatically open with the S&T application. We have to open it as a separate executable file for it to be displayed. How do we link it if that is the right term?

Hi Dennis –
Once you have downloaded it – you just need to double-click on the file. It will open up in S&T with all the POI goodness. If you launch S&T from the start menu then you’ll get the default template without the POI megafile. Many people like to have the choice. If you want to make the POI megafile your default template (so it loads each time you launch S&T from the start menu) then follow the instructions on this post: http://msstreets.com/2009/11/06/5-reasons-to-change-your-default-map-template/

Hey, guys…does anyone have any idea when the megafile will be updated? i’m working on a massive review of truckstops i’ve personally been to, and i’m using the info in S&T so I can include exit numbers, with the info..so if there’s any updates, i’d like to be able to have that info handy, for my next trip around the country. thanks.

Hi Roadpilot,
The POI Megafile was just updated last week. If you have something to contribute to the next version of the POI megafile I would love to work with you on that. Shoot me an email at streetsandtrips [at] hotmail {dot}com.

The Cummins collection was becoming very stale. I purged it from the POI megafile in September. If you still want it just copy it over from an older POI megafile or grab the text file collection from discoveryowners.com/cginfo.htm

Hi John – this type of crazy error message would suggest that you are trying to open a map file that was created in a newer S&T version in an older version of S&T. For example, the latest POI megafile is for S&T 2011. It cannot open in S&T 2010. You can download a 60day free trial of S&T2011 and see how you like it.

Ok guys, I’m new to S&T but already have one large trip mapped out and a couple smaller ones. Now that I found this POI file (great work!) and downloaded it, I would like it to show up in the trip I have mapped out. The only explanation I can find is the one to import the text only versions from Discoveryowners.com? I really don’t want to import each file. Is there a way to import the entire April download so it will show up in the trip I have already created? Thanks for the help.

You’ve tapped into the POI jackpot with the POI megafile! LOL. You can transfer the POI collections from the POI Megafile over to your map file that you have already created using cut’n’paste.

Here are the basic steps:
1. Open the previously created map (we’ll call this the destination map)
2. On the same machine open the POI Megafile. You should have 2 instances of S&T open.
3. In the POI Megafile – select a pushpin set name that you wish to transfer and do a “ctrl+c” (to copy to clipboard)
4. Give the destination map focus then do a “ctrl+v” to paste in the pushpin set in its entirety.

Thanks for the suggestion but maybe I am doing something wrong. I do the “ctrl+c” from the the POI megafile. Then I open the destination map, highlight pushpins and do the “cntr-v” to paste and the import data wizard comes up. It says there are no valid location headings found. It has 2 columns, left side blank, right side copied the pushpins from A down thru B and stops. I can’t seem to get the destination map to just copy the pushpin set in it’s entirety?

Hi Paul – great question and one that is often asked. Here is how you copy a pushpin set from one map to another.

1) open 2 instances of S&T. One being the megafile and the other the one with your custom pushpin collection.
2) in the legends and overview pane, right-click on the pushpin set name of the collection you want to copy over and choose ‘copy’ from the popup context menu.
3) give the target map focus and press ctrl+v (to paste the pushpin set to the map)

Hope that is clear enough. You can’t transfer multiple sets at once but it is still a huge time saver to copy collections this way.

Thanks team. That was a LOT easier than copying each pin separately. So here’s another problem. Routing defect. Try running a route from I-15 and Ghost Town Rd, Exit 191, Just east of Barstow, CA, (34.90283N/11688673W) To I-15 and Lenwood Rd, Exit 178, just south of Barstow, CA, (34.85771N/117.08390W) On both my S&T and POI, the program can’t “find” the I-15 southbound lanes. It keeps routing around the the section between Exit 186, Old CA-58, and the junction with I-40. It’s like that section of I-15 is not there. it’ll run it NORTHBOUND but not south.

I input a property that is in Guttenberg, NJ, put Microsoft Streets and Trips lists this same property as being the same address in West New York, NJ. How can I change the municipality that Microsoft Streets and Trips incorrectly cites? Thanks much.

Thanks for your report. I was able to see it on Bing too. This would indicate that it is how we get it from NavTeq. I’ll report it to them via http://mapreporter.navteq.com. You might do the same so we have more voices. 😀

I am trying to update pushpin information for some of the inluded megafile pushpin sets and the program is not allowing me to do so. I have found store locations that have closed or moved and would like to change the sets. How do i do this?

I am trying to delete a push pin location and add a different one. A store listed in the POI file has moved. The program will not allow me to delete the existing push pin and when I try to add the new location it only allows me to add the push pin as one of “My Push Pins” and will not allow me to include the new location in the existing push pin set.

Tom, I think your asking about the same thing that has me a little confused.

Export the selected Mega File pushpin set (hide all other push pins) and then import it back in. The new pushpin set you just imported back in will now show up in the drop down window under Data Set Names. For some reason, user created pushpin sets and Mega File pushpins sets, don’t mix for me. Once you have created a copy, you can delete the Mega File pushpin set.

If you want to split up the pushpins and add them to another group (like a collection of everything for California)…I think you have to reassign one pushpin at a time and then add the icon image back to it again in a second step.

Sure you can combine most of the information from several different S&T maps. This would include: Pushpins, POI collections, GPS trails, etc. The one limitation is that each S&T map will only support a single route. There is no way to have a map file with multiple routes. The other information/data can be combined.

Love’s truck stops are not accurate at all. You have pushpins where there is no Love’s and no pushpin where there are Love’s. May I suggest you download their locations? Great job on all the other truckstops!

I notice that the top of this page says that the Pushpin MegaFile was “updated monthly. Last updated: June 2013” Since that is unlikely, I would like to know the actual date. Also, is it still updated monthly?

It WAS updated monthly at the time of posting but this has obviously not been the case as of late. I’ve updated that text to reflect reality. Your Walmart contributions have been awesome and are clearly the most up-to-date collections in the Megafile. I couldn’t justify the time/effort to release a new POI Megafile just for Walmart. However, I’ve got several updates now so one is due.

Thanks for that explanation. I consider the MegaFile to qualify for “awesome”.
However, the blurb at the top of the page still says “Last updated: June 2013” (which is still unlikely). Just a typo, but confusing for some.

Hi Wil, Sorry for the confusion. When you download the S&T software (http://msstreets.com/download-free-trial/) it comes as an exe file. The .stt file extension is the format for a S&T map template file (not the S&T program itself). I am guessing you are attempting to download the free POI Megafile (which comes as a .stt file). In order to open this Megafile you need to have Microsoft S&T installed first. Hope that helps.

I have just downloaded Streets and Trips 2013 along with the latest POI Mega File. For some reason the US Wall-Mart “no overnight parking” selection is not available. Have I missed something or it no longer available?

Thank you for replying so quickly. When I downloaded your zip file it was a Microsoft Word document. The only import format I can find is for a GPX file. Is there a way to import it into my POI file as a Word Doc? Is there any way to convert your download into a GPX file?

This is Nifty. I’ve had most versions or S&T since 2001 – really like it – it just flies. Very early on I & Friends started building Excel sheets with favorite places to visit, eat and get RV’s repaired. Loaded a hugh amount of GAs & Service stations – From Alabama, to Texas, California & Alaska. – si I can say – man this is cool! But I have a questiion. I have GPS feeding MS S&T. I have set my “Other” ( & Why is that called “Other options” – why not Veh preferances) options to what I think I can/will do – Does S&T ‘learn’ from my actual driving habits and adjust trip’s length, food & fuel stops to actual usage? Thanks – BTW – S&T is by far one of the best trip / map’s on the market, Really have enjoyed it – immensly.

Hi, We purchased the 2013 version of S&T and loaded it on our computer. When I tried to install the POI file and make a template, the program said I was not authorized to save a file to the template file and suggested I save it in the users file instead. This means I can’t open a new map from the Programs list with the POI file in it. Windows 7 with S&T 2013. Any advice? Also the “Run as Administrator” option is not available.

The POI megafile is a template file. In other words it has the .stt extension. Are you trying to make it the default template so each time you start S&T it shows up? You CAN do that but it isn’t recommended as the POI megafile pretty big. I would recommend double-clicking on the megafile to launch S&T and saving versions of it for trip planning. For example you might open up the POI Megafile and delete several collections that do no interest you then save the file with a new name “MyCustomMegafile.est”. Hope that helps.

Off Topic, but…
How much arm twisting would be necessary to get MS S&T to export a TomTom ITN file. It has 4 columns — Lat/Lon/Name/code, where the code is 0 for waypoint and 1 for destination (and you can have more than one destination). I have been waiting on this for YEARS. It may be Lon/Lat/name/code, and the delimiter is a pipe “|” instead of a slash.

Hmmm…I was going to say yes but I believe that MP can open saved S&T map files (*.est) but not S&T templates (*.stt). If you have S&T open up the POI Mega file then save the file with a new name on your desktop or somewhere. Now open that saved file in MP. You have basically just converted the template (STT) to a saved map (EST).

I love this mega file!!! I just found out about it from someone I met in a campground and wanted it years ago. I use S&T exclusively and it’s easy to use. I am, however, having a small problem. The program at times wants to take me on a route that I don’t want to go on so I just try to drag it to the route I want to go and for some unknown reason it just won’t go onto that route. It wants to stay where it is or take another longer route. What’s up with that?
Thanks for all the C2C and TTN info along with all the other things in there that are so helpful and useful in traveling around this country!

Thanks Bill. When it gives me routing issues you can always just get it as close as possible and when you are on the road just plow through the roads you want to take and it will automatically recalculate. Why does this happen? Usually because of some one-off route segment that S&T doesn’t see as ‘routable’.

Thanks for your comment. I would look for Church collections for download at http://www.poi-factory.com. Typically, when we want to check out a Church somewhere we are looking for a particular style or denomination of Church so if possible find one that is more specific (Catholic, Baptist, Calvary Chapel, Lutheran etc).